Postmortem to the 2009 Season

And on the 200th day, the Commissioner rests. So ends the 23rd season of FNFT.

In every year of FNFT I have three goals: to improve the player experience for everyone, to streamline the administrative process for me, and to try to field a championship team. I believe I accomplished my first goal. All of the feedback I have gotten about the new lineup and stats system has been very positive. The system will be back next year. My second goal was a slight step backwards, but not by much. I still spend way less time on league administration than I did 10 years ago. My third goal was one of the most stunning failures of my life. I spend a lot of time studying the game of baseball. I spent a lot of time preparing for this year's draft. I don't care if my top starting pitcher missed the whole year. A 106 loss season should never happen to me. Ever. It was an embarasement.

I've kind of had this notion that the more stats and analysis tool I provided for everyone, the more parity there would be in the league. I obviously didn't think that every team would finish .500, but with all of the same information available to everyone, I figured that it would keep the win-loss totals closer from team to team. This year in the FNFT, on average, teams were 14.0 games either above or below .500. That's the highest it's ever been. So much for my theory.

If you try to log in to the rosters system right now, you may find it unavailable. That will be the case for much of the off-season; it will be hit or miss. Alpha Five, the software I used to create the system, has an upgrade due out in a few weeks that will allow me to make a few changes. Nothing dramatic, but a few neat features will be added. I'll tell you what they are after I figure out how to do them. I do want to create a way for teams to log their own trades. The rest will be mainly window dressing. You are free to try to log in any time you wish to see what's new.

That being said, this would be a good time to let me know about any suggestions you have about the roster system or anything else FNFT. What did you think about the new playoff format? Avery thinks we should go back to both series being best of five. I would rather keep the 4-game series, but seed the playoffs so that the team with the best record plays the team with the worst record, regardless of who the Wild Card was. TMac did kind of get the shaft given his regular season record. Should we add a disabled list? Tweak the points? Now would be a good time to go on the record with your suggestions.

On thing that fell by the wayside this year was the regularly updated list of FNFT player points. I've finally done that. Here is next year's auction list:

POS	NAME	MLB	PTS
SP1	Tim Lincecum	SF	260
SP1	Zack Greinke	KC	257
SP1	Johan Santana	NYM	221
1B	Albert Pujols	StL	189
1B	Justin Morneau	Min	188
SP1	CC Sabathia	NYY	188
C	Joe Mauer	Min	188
2B	Chase Utley	Phi	177
OF	Jayson Werth	Phi	176
OF	Nick Markakis	Bal	172
SP2	Chris Carpenter	StL	172
3B	Evan Longoria	TB	171
OF	Matt Kemp	LAD	166
1B	Mark Teixeira	NYY	161
SS	Hanley Ramirez	Fla	158
1B	Miguel Cabrera	Det	157
SP1	Roy Oswalt	Hou	157
OF	Bobby Abreu	LAA	155
DH	Ryan Ludwick	StL	153
OF	Matt Holliday	StL	152
OF	Jason Bay	Bos	151
SP1	Roy Halladay	Tor	150
3B	Alex Rodriguez	NYY	150
2B	Brandon Phillips	Cin	147
SS	Troy Tulowitzki	Col	147
2B	Brian Roberts	Bal	144
SP2	Josh Johnson	Fla	144
C	Brian McCann	Atl	141
OF	Brad Hawpe	Col	141
OF	Andre Ethier	LAD	139
OF	Adam Jones	Bal	138
OF	Ryan Braun	Mil	137
1B	Adam Dunn	Was	137
2B	Aaron Hill	Tor	136
2B	Ian Kinsler	Tex	135
3B	Mark DeRosa	StL	135

TMac drafted Zach Grienke in the 5th round, Andre Either in the 8th round, Josh Johnson in the 10th round, and Chris Carpenter in the 16th round. All of them made the auction. Amazing.

Finally, the 2010 FNFT Draft will be Saturday, April 3 (my wife's birthday). Same time. Same place. I'll remind you 5 or 6 times before then.

Enjoy the MLB playoffs and have a good off-season.